Personal Narrative: My Trip To Haiti

October 1966. After being named chairman of SNCC, Stokely Carmichael gives a speech titled “Black Power.” He says, “We have to seriously examine the histories that we have been told” because while the American government makes claims of equal opportunity, we must look at the facts and the actual history of America to see the truth. We must analyze the facts to understand our present and shape the future.
August 2015. I make a trip to Haiti, where my parents were born. I enjoy two weeks of new faces, adventures, and personal growth with my mom and other family in Haiti. I hear stories from my elders and perform traditional dances with friends and family. I am reminded that although Haiti is poor now, centuries before, it was the first country in the

June 1972. Angela Davis, after being relieved of charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder, says, “I really wonder whether or not I will be able to meet the role which history has cut out for me, which you have cut out for me, but I promise I am going to try.” The people put immense faith in Angela Davis because they believed she had the strength to change a system that had been broken for blacks for centuries. Angela didn’t feel confident that she could live up to these expectations, but promised she would try.
May 2016. The applications for Peer Help Program, or PHP, at school come out and I don’t think much of it. When a faculty member approaches me and tells me to apply, skepticism runs through my veins because I assume PHP is for bright kids capable of effortlessly improving the school culture. There’s no way I would get in. But I submit an application because of a tiny ounce of hope that I would be selected. The teacher believed in me, so I had to believe in myself. Two weeks later, I got in. My confidence doesn’t surge like some of my other selected classmates, but I promise myself to try and live up to everyone’s expectations. About one year later, I become
Vice-President of my